(Before I start, have to say a massive thank you to Andreas Creten, Marco Jardim and the rest of the gang who helped to make this latest design iteration a reality.)

We’ve just launched a brand new look on The Next Web. Our homepage has a completely new look, the channel/blog homepage have also been given an uplift and posts pages an extensive revamp.

These are the most significant changes:

1) Speed. Without question, the primary purpose of this latest revamp was to improve page load times. While we’ll never stop tweaking to improve the speed, this is without question the greatest improvement we’ve seen.

2) New Homepage. We scrapped the default widget view and are now introducing a minimalist, speedy new homepage. As much as we wanted it to, the widget view just didn’t get enough uptake, we hope with this new look you’ll find navigation a breeze and the interface a lot easier on the eye. Above all else, it should load faaaaaast.

3) Position of the sites navigation. Whereas before the main navigation was to be found at the top of the site, only visible by hovering over each menu title, you’ll now find the navigation in a left sidebar visible throughout the site no matter what page you’re on. We hope this will make it clear how the site is structured but also help you navigate the site easier.

The design is currently being rolled out across the site and we’ve got a bunch of changes/tweaks we need to implement over the next few hours but for now, here are a few screenshots for you to enjoy. You can also see the live site on the main homepage and our Entrepreneur Channel.